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Mike Bernardo - Winner of the K-1 Grand Prix in Fukuoka

Mike Bernardo is born in South Africa on July 28, 1969. When he was seven years old he told his parents, in fact, he told my mother that he would a world champion fighter one day. She just laughed at him and just threw it away as, just like i was, kid's talk. But he knew at that age that he wanted to become a fighter as he grew up. His height is 193cm and his weight 108 kg. He won the titles K-1 GRAND PRIX '96 Second Champion, K-1 GRAND PRIX '98 3rd Place, WBF World Heavyweight Champion, World Olympic Kickboxing Organisation Superheavyweight Champion, K-1 WORLD GP 2000 in Fukuoka Champion and K-1 WORLD GP 2001 in Nagoya 3rd Place. His fight record is 65 Fights 49 Wins 13 Losses 1 Draw 39 KOs 2 No Contest, All-round Fight:1 Fight 1 Draw.

Mike: "One of the things I value in life most is laughter, and the friends that I have we laugh all the time and try to make jokes at each other. How nice would this world be if we all cared about each other the way we care about ourselves. If you loved someone else the way you love yourself then you would care about this person, and if we thought that way about everybody else that would make me so happy cause this place would obviously be a better place to stay, to be in. We are all created in love, we all seek and desire to be appreciated, to be loved, we all desire that feeling that you're appreciated, that people care about you.

I'd like to be known as a positive good role model, and the thing I want to tell people and give encouragement to young people growing up is that don't ever, ever be tempted or led in the wrong way by your peers, by your friends, to think that something's OK when it's not. If you don't feel OK in your spirit, inside you, if you feel that something isn't right then don't do it, what other peple are saying and doing, make a stand sometime for what you believe in, because at the end of the day the choices that you made today will be the consecuences of what happens later in life. Life isn't easy. Noone said it's gonna be easy. Noone says that there's an easy way out. I think that it's my responsability as being someone in the line-marks to leave a positive trail in people's minds.

The most important thing that people need to know is about having a relationship with my heavenly Father. It's not about doing things the correct way, it's about living your life according to his world, and having a relation, spending time with, him talking to him, letting him speak into your life, letting him direct your life, showing the correct paths.

Before the fight I say a prayer that God keep us both safe. And his will be done. In my heart there's no vengeance, I don't wanna inflict pain just because I want to inflict pain, but because I want to compete against the person that I am competing with. We're both competitors in the same line of work and we're just putting our skills together to see who's better than the other one on the day.

My message is that there is hope for all of us, there's hope for every single one. Jesus is the saviour, and he's the way to offer hope, love, and also hope in healing as well. And with him with us we can achieve anything we want to achieve. That is my message.

All my strength comes from God. Wherever there's heartache or pain or suffering, that's where fear comes from... I've nothing to fear. If you look at fear, fear is the lack of love. The bottom line is that I know the truth, and the truth exists in my heart.

"No weapon formed against me shall prosper for I'm more than a conqueror in Jesus' name." Psalm 27, verse 1: "The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear. The Lord is a stonnel of my life of whom shall I be affraid."

It's telling me and it's telling everyone else that the Lord, my relationship that I have with Jesus Christ is, that's my religion. If God is for me who can be against me. He offers me strength, he gives me strength, he gives me motivation, so who shall I be affraid of, who out there, if he's a man must I be scared of? Noone. I don't fear any man. Man does not scare me. If God is for me, who can be against me? Who is more powerful than God, please, let any man come forth and tell me that. If you have a dream in your life, and if you believe in your heart that you can be a champion, don't listen to what people say. Follow that feeling, follow that dream that you have and never, ever, ever give up. I just want to tell you that you must train hard, be persistant in what you do. Keep stepping, keep working, every single day, every day that you train hard, every day that you go to training is a day closer to your goal that you've set yourself."